


Stranger Things

by SwiftyTheWriter



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, Tahiti is a Magical Place, a somewhat altered canon, it's complicated - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-24
Updated: 2016-01-24
Packaged: 2018-05-15 20:28:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5798821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SwiftyTheWriter/pseuds/SwiftyTheWriter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Daisy was a perfectly normal albeit overprotective single mother working a perfectly normal job at a respectable tech company."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stranger Things

Daisy Johnson wasn’t in anybody’s sense an odd person. Not like Mr. Johnson down the hall who never leaves his apartment and who you can hear yelling at his TV through the walls. Or Greg at work who looked at porn at his workstation and chewed styrofoam cups when he was done with his coffee. No, Daisy was a perfectly normal albeit overprotective single mother working a perfectly normal job at a respectable tech company.

So things like the summer she took Rose to the YMCA pool with some other moms to teach her how to swim and she had worn a two piece that had exposed her scars didn’t bother her.

* * *

 

Marie gasped from her side. Daisy turned and took a eye off her four year old who was wading in the shallow pool with her friends for a second to look at the soccer mom.

“What,” She asked.

Marie’s eyes were comically large. She pointed at Daisy’s chest. “Are those,” She whispered. “Bullet holes?”

Daisy looked down at her chest and sure enough there they were. Among the fit muscles and a few other marks the scars stood out quite profusely in the lighting.

“Well, not anymore.” She replied, looking back at her daughter.

“What happened?” Marie demanded.

What did happen? But before Daisy could strain to think, a story rose behind her eyes and she was talking.

“I was mugged a few years ago when I was living San Francisco and it ended badly. I was in the hospital for weeks. It was before Rose came along.” She was saying. It all made perfect sense. It was like it was happening before her eyes. The guy grabbed her her purse. She fought. The gun went off. She woke in a hospital bed weeks later. No, not weeks. One week. It wasn’t that serious of an accident. Of course.

“That’s horrible! So that’s why you take those self defense classes, hun?” Marie replied, looking back at her son playing in the pool.

“Yeah,” Daisy said, dazed. She focused on her daughter trying to ignore the quickly dissipating feeling of unease. Rose looked at her and giggled and she smiled back and what she felt was forgotten.

Until Marie pointed it out Daisy had never before noticed her scars.

* * *

Daisy wasn’t bothered by things like that. The facts that she had a gun in a safe that she couldn’t remember getting or learning how to use or that she had five locks on her door had always seemed perfectly reasonable for a person living in the city. Her compulsion to take martial arts and stay in shape was normal. Her not letting her daughter go to anyone’s house unsupervised without running a background test on them first was a bit eccentric but understandable in the way of a concerned parent.

She even had a set of multivitamins that she took once a day without fail making the people that knew her best joke about how she was the healthiest person in the state of New York.

And she was honestly one of the most average people in Brooklyn.

So while few things about her life bothered her she had to admit walking into her apartment and seeing the man with a gun sitting at her kitchen table was at the top of her list.

Maybe we should should start from the beginning.

* * *

Daisy woke up gasping for breath and grabbing for something on her nightstand that wasn’t there. When the world come back to focus she looked at her alarm clock and groaned. 4:37 A.M She didn’t have to be up for almost an hour. She ran her had through her hair and frowned when it came away damp. She was covered in sweat.

There was no going back to sleep now so she resigned herself to a quick cold shower and attempting to make something other than cereal for breakfast for her and Rose. Which limited itself to whatever could be put in a toaster. She was a terrible cook.

The stream of cold water from the shower was bracing, washing away all traces of her nightmare. Like always she tried to remember what she was dreaming and like always it eluded her. “Whatever it was it was intense,” She thought. She exhaled and focused on the water. Nothing would come from playing this game.

After ten minutes of drying off and getting dressed she went to the kitchen and opened the fridge. They were out of milk. Orange juice and toaster waffles for breakfast it was. She put two in the toaster already and went to wake her daughter.

Rose, who was buried under mounds of blankets and stuffed animals, was a determinedly late sleeper just like her mother was at her age. Rose was also incredibly stubborn and bullheaded when she had got her mind made up. And she had decided school was evil. Sadly, another trait she shared with Daisy.

“Rose,” Daisy said calmly, pulling off her blanket. “Wake up. It’s time to get ready for school.”

“No,” came the small voice.

“Yes. Now come on. You can see all your friends at school.” She got her socks, shoes and uniform from where Rose hid them. Under a stuffed Olaf. She’d get better at that when she got older.

“I don’t want to. Neither does Thumper.”

“Tell you what. Thumper can come with you.”

“No. Thumper hates school.” Daisy had to bite back a laugh at Rose’s antics. Her stuffed rabbit Thumper was her best friend. He also seemed to share all her more vocal opinions.

“Well it’s a shame Thumper hates school since your class is going to have a very special trip to the zoo today.” Rose’s eyes popped open almost comically. She clutched Thumper to her chest.

“Huh?”

“But, of course if you don’t want to go…”

“I want to go! I want to go! Thumper changes his mind!” Rose almost shouted jumping up on her bed.

“Well, if you’re sure...”

“Yeah!”

“Okay,” Daisy grinned, thanking the higher powers that had scheduled the trip. “Well you and Thumper better get dressed, then.” Her daughter grabbed her uniform with more enthusiasm than she had ever seen in her.

“Waffles and syrup in five,” She called back and heard the muffled reply. She couldn’t help but smile. She loved her daughter more than anything. She was worth whatever drunken one night stand produced her. She would do anything for her.

But it clear that Rose didn’t get everything from Daisy. Her gift with languages was well known around her school as well as her ability to build anything with her hands if she put her mind to it. (She and her friends made a pillow fort during an inside recess out of a few spare chairs and a table. It was a week before the teachers figured out how to dismantle it.) Or that when she got really mad or scared she didn’t lash out like Daisy did, she withdrew.

Sometimes Daisy wondered about Rose’s father. Wondered what kind of person he was, what else did he have in common with Rose that she couldn’t see. She tried to remember that night how they met but she never could. She must have been really, really drunk.

“Mom, look!” Rose yelled, bursting into the kitchen with Thumper in hand. Making an entrance was definitely something she got from Daisy.

“I tied my own shoes! See?” Rose pointed at her feet which were her shoes were as she said tied and laced.

They were were also on the wrong feet.

"Time to intervene," Daisy thought.

“I do see and you did a fantastic job but,” She got down on her daughter's level. “Do you know what they say about girls who don’t have their shoes on the right feet?” Daisy asked seriously.

Rose shook her head.

“They get attacked by the tickle monster!” She declared, tickling Rose. Rose giggled, ducking away. She picked up Rost and set her at the table, untying her shoes quickly-or trying to. Rose seemed to have discovered the wonderful world of knots and was demonstrating said world on her shoes.

She finally got them off and where they should be and gave her daughter a sugary breakfast that she was sure her teachers would thank her for and got her out the door and on the bus stop with twenty dollars to spend and two minutes to spare.

“Now, Rose. You and Thumper make sure to be good for your teachers, okay?” Rose nodded quickly looking sincere. Daisy had her doubts.

“I may be a bit late getting home today, but if you get at all scared you call me and I will come home right away.” She nodded again but looked a bit restless this time.

“We’re also going to have take out for dinner,” Rose looked interested again.

“Pizza,” She asked hopefully. Daisy chuckled.

“No, something healthy.” Rose wrinkled her nose.

“Pizza’s healthy,” She muttered.

The bus pulled up and the rusty door swung upon. Rose hugged her goodbye and clambered on. Daisy stood there for a minute watching the yellow bus disappear into traffic a cloud of pipe exhaust and then went to hail a cab to go to work.

She didn’t notice the man across the street who was watching the entire exchange.

* * *

 

Work was long and boring with very few coworkers she actually liked but the job was steady and the pay was good and they gave her weekends off to spend with her daughter of which she was grateful.

Though something was odd when she came in. James the security guard who was always at the front door when she came in wasn’t that day. She was a bit disappointed. He had always made a point of saying hi to her. She hoped he was okay.

Work crawled by with the speed it usually did. She was let out with enough time to pick up dinner for Rose before she raided the cabinets looking for a snack. Pizza. The kind with everything on it that Rose adored and that she couldn’t fathom how she had developed a taste for it.

She unlocked the door to her apartment taking a minute for each lock and swung open the door trying to juggle her bags and the pizza that took up her arms.

“Hey, Rose I have a surprise for-” Daisy froze.

A lot of things can happen in a few seconds. First was the realisation that the guy sitting at the table was most certainly not the landlord and that he had a gun. The second was that she was completely exposed from where she was standing. The third and most important thing came last.

The third was Rose running into the room with Thumper and a new stuffed elephant seemingly unafraid of the man with the gun.

“You brought pizza!” Rose squealed. She rushed forward and took the box. Daisy wanted to grab Rose, throw her behind her and run as fast as she could but the look the guy gave her seemed to be challenging her to do just that. So instead she stepped forward into the her home and forced herself to act normal for Rose’s sake. As normal as she could.

“Rose,” She said, not missing the look he gave her when she did. “Who’s your guest?”

Rose had put the pizza on the table and took a bite so he answered in her stead, “An old friend.”

“Okay, so he is both dangerous and delusional.” She thought.

Instead she said, “Rosie, why don’t you go into the living and put on a movie. I’ll be there in a minute.”

“Can Grant come?” She asked, pointing at him.

For the love of god.

“No, sweetie. We have to,” She paused. “ Catch up.”

“Okay, mom.” Rose actually sounded disappointed and went into the living room with her toys and pizza in tow.

She turned towards the asshat that had screwed up what was left of her Friday feeling anger in her veins. Pins and needles pricked almost painfully up and down her spine,` getting worse the faster her heart beat.

“So, Rose, huh.” He said. Fear was put away as anger picked up.

“If you laid so much as a finger on her, I swear to-”

“I have to admit, Skye. When I tracked you down this I did not expect.”

“What-” She began but apparently he wasn’t done.

“I knew you must have had a good reason to disappear, but this…” He paused and looked almost angry. It disappeared too soon to tell. “Don’t feel too bad about me finding you. I was the only one that didn’t buy that story about Prague, well one of the only ones. It was convincing, though. Hiding you in plane sight under everyone’s noses, now that is such a S.H.I.E.L.D move. I almost can’t believe I didn’t find you sooner. I mean, New York for fuck’s sake.”

He finally stood and Daisy could see his full frame. He was easily six feet and solid muscle. Dressed in a simple tshirt and jeans with a leather jacket casually flung over the back of his chair he was the epitome of Tall, Dark and want to put a foot where the sun most definitely doesn’t shine.

“Vacation’s over, Skye. Whitehall’s taken over your S.H.I.E.L.D and who he hasn’t turned or captured are in hiding. And he’s coming after you next. Simmons told me where to find you,” He looked at the expression on her face and grinned. “Common enemies make strange bedfellows, Skye. Or however that expression goes.”

He then looked at her expecting her to do god knows what. Something in her snapped.

“What the ever loving fuck are you going on about,” She demanded. He looked surprised. “I don’t know who you are or what you’re going on about but you better get the hell out of my apartment before I call the cops and make you wish you had gotten your sorry ass in gear sooner.”

She stalked a bit closer towards the nut with a gun, “And if you so much as touch me or my daughter I will make you regret it.”

He stared at her with his mouth open like a dead fish before closing it and fixing her with a scrutinizing look that she had seen on Rose’s face so many times before when there was a puzzle she couldn’t quite figure out.

Rose came into the room holding Thumper by his ear. “Mom, why are you yelling at Grant.” She asked looking confused. A look of realisation came over his face.

“Doesn’t matter, baby. He was just leaving.” She fixed him with a glare and picked up Rose.

“Daisy,” He said carefully, ignoring the scathing looks she sent his way. “Have you ever been to Tahiti?”

“When Rose was one. It’s a magical place.”

“Fuck.”

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, Rose is named after Ward's sister (who is dead in this verse). Not that Skye would know. I may eventually write a companion piece to this. But for now tell me what you think and if you have questions, ask! Hope you have a great day :)


End file.
